UPDATE: 22 Nov, 2009
Government clamps down in three different provinces on senior monks trying to offer shelter and protection to Bat Nha monks and nuns
Government persecution of the Bat Nha monks and nuns continues to intensify. Harassment, threats and surveillance are becoming more and more targeted. It is not just the refugee Bat Nha monks and nuns at Phuoc Hue temple (and those supporting them at Phuoc Hue temple – the abbot, and lay followers) who are being persecuted, but anyone, anywhere who offers shelter and protection to Bat Nha monks and nuns.
It is now clear that it is not where they are that is the problem – but who they are, as practitioners of engaged Buddhism in the Plum Village tradition. As a community they are being demonised in government propaganda and blacklisted by police authorities across the country.
Since their violent expulsion from their home monastery, the government has been trying to claim that the Bat Nha monks and nuns did not have the necessary resident permits. In fact, they were eligible for the permits but government officials refused to issue them. Yet police in Cam Ranh district are now even demanding that Bat Nha monks and nuns resident in that very province leave the temple where they have taken refuge.
Increasingly the government are revealing their fundamental intention: to specifically persecute the Bat Nha monks and nuns, preventing them from going to any temple, from practising todether anywhere.
Police threaten Venerable Abbot Giac Vien in Cam Ranh
Ven. Giac Vien, the abbot of Tu Duc Temple, in Cam Hiep Village in Cam Ranh district of Khanh Hoa Province, has come under stiff police persecution in the third week of November. He has given refuge to 21 nuns and 7 monks from Bat Nha, who came to his temple for relief from the extreme surveillance and harassment they were subjected to at Phuoc Hue temple. The police visited, harassed and threatened the abbot and monks and nuns at the temple almost daily, demanding that every Bat Nha monk and nun leave. They summoned the abbot to the police station several times for long interrogations. Police are even demanding that those who already have residence permits in Khanh Hoa Province, but who are ‘Bat Nha monks and nuns’, leave his temple.
Police make threats at Tu Hiêu temple in Hue
At Tu Hiêu Temple in Hue (the “root temple” of the lineage from which the Plum Village tradition is descended) there are several dozen monks and nuns from the Bat Nha community. Some have been there more than a year – many more have taken refuge there since the violence in June and expulsion in September. In November surveillance and harassment at Tu Hiêu Temple dramatically increased. In the third week of November police began to make a new demand: that every one of the Bat Nha monks and nuns must leave, but with nowhere to go.
On 21st Nov. 22 ‘aspirants’ from the Bat Nha community were ordained at Tu Hiêu Temple. Right after the ordination police came to the temple furious that the ceremony had taken place. A senior brother explained that ordinations are an internal temple matter and nothing to do with the police.
Police threaten Venerable Abbot Minh Nghia in Saigon
A senior monk in the Saigon region, Venerable Minh Nghia, has stepped in and made an offer host 192 Bat Nha monks and nuns (still in temporary refuge at Phuoc Hue in Bao Loc town) at his Gian Nguyen Temple near Saigon. The proposal was confirmed in writing on 9 Nov. by the national office of the Buddhist Church of Vietnam. It would need approval by the government’s Committee for Religious Affairs before becoming legally valid. The government has not responded to this request, yet continues to demand the Bat Nha monks and nuns leave Phuoc Hue by the Nov. 30th deadline. And on 19 Nov. Venerable Minh Nghia was summoned by local police, who threatened him, and forbid him – without legal grounds – from taking in Bat Nha monks and nuns.
